This seminar is designed to familiarize you with the structures of
scholarship on East Asia in a number of disciplines. As such this
course surveys East Asia as a whole. By structures we mean the
questions and assumptions that have guided scholarship on East Asia
from early studies that shaped the field, to post-war writings, and
more recent work that has overturned what had become established
beliefs. We hope to come to an understanding of just how we have
arrived in the current, more pluralistic scholarly environment of
today. The goal is for students to become familiar with the broader
changes in intellectual approaches in the East Asian studies field
and therefore be able to negotiate, adapt, accept, or reject various
approaches as they begin their own work. The course will also
introduce students to a number of East Asian specialists working at
IU. IU East Asian studies professors representing a number of
disciplines will join our discussions. Their names are listed in
parentheses in the weekly schedule
We will devote our time to rigorous discussion of weekly readings.
Discussions will be shaped by student reading reactions that will be
due weekly. Readings will be available on the E-Reserves (password
PRESENT) of the Main Library, in Xerox form, or on-line. Each week
several students will assume responsibility for leading our
discussions of the readings. Unless otherwise specified, readings
are available on the EReserves at the BMain Library. Some readings
are from books available at the IMU Bookstore, and others are on-
line.